Since President Biden appointed me as Chair, I’ve had the privilege to learn more about NCPC’s important work and the complexity of planning for the National Capital Region. It has been my pleasure to work with fellow Commissioners and agency staff, and to hear perspectives from so many people passionate about their communities and our nation’s capital.

In 2023, imaginative thinking, persistence, and the agency’s efforts to bring together stakeholders resulted in two major projects that address important issues in our capital city: the innovative and compelling Beyond Granite temporary artwork exhibition on the National Mall and an important federal/local partnership to envision a new future for Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Commission also reviewed many federal projects and master plans over the past year, with a focus on integrating these facilities into their communities and incorporating equity and climate adaptation strategies early in the process. The number and scope of projects reviewed underscores the agency’s impact on the region.

In 2024 we will celebrate NCPC’s Centennial! It is a great opportunity to reflect on the agency’s past, its successes and failures, and the lasting impacts that 100 years of planning have had on the region’s people and environment. These reflections will help shape our path as we look to what we hope to accomplish in the years to come.

- Teri Hawks Goodmann

For one month this past summer, the Beyond Granite: Pulling Together exhibition presented dynamic works by six contemporary artists that responded to the question “What stories remain untold on the National Mall?” The exhibition was designed to test a powerful idea: how can temporary artworks create new options for a more inclusive, equitable, and representative commemorative landscape on the National Mall and in the nation’s capital?

The public reaction and response were overwhelmingly positive. An estimated two million people visited the exhibition, the Let Freedom Ring bell was rung around 20,000 times, and countless kids, young and old, played on the playground. The audience extended nationally, with more than 400 print and broadcast stories covering the program.

“Beyond Granite: Pulling Together accomplished what we hoped it would do. It created new opportunities for more of America’s stories to be told in our nation’s capital in a way that protected the National Mall’s open spaces,” said NCPC Executive Director Marcel Acosta. “With the lessons learned from this successful pilot, the partners will work together to make Beyond Granite a permanent program for temporary artworks.”

The initiative was led by the Trust for the National Mall in partnership with NCPC and the National Park Service, with financial support provided by the Mellon Foundation. It was curated by Dr. Paul Farber and Dr. Salamishah Tillet for Monument Lab.

Beyond Granite